Nordic Baltic Campaign againstKvinnofridslagstiftningen), the Swedish Government and Riksdag (theAct Prohibiting the Purchase of Sexual Services, a person who obtains casual sexual relations in exchangePenal Code – for the purchase of sexual services to a fine orPenal.Act that Prohibits the Purchase ofremains strong; with 8 out of 10Penal Code,Folkhälsoinstitutet 1998:1), one man in eight inProtocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking– may be subjected toProtocol to Prevent,, Especially, Supplementing the United, the Swedish Government has agreed to bringtrafficking in human beings for sexualentered into force. It includes criminalCommittee on the Reception of Close(Anhörigkommittén), to examine and reviewAliens Act.Aliens Act, which provides for such decisions onWomen andin Vilnius, Lithuania, in June 2001. TheSwedish Campaign has had its overall objective toUnited,
F A C T S H E E T
Ministry of Industry, Employment
and Communications
April 2003
Prostitution and
trafficking in women
In this fact sheet:
This publication presents a short
background to prostitution and
trafficking in women under the following
headings:
• Prostitution is a form of male violence
against women
• Why does prostitution exist?
• Who is the buyer?
• The effects of prostitution
• Trafficking in women and children
• Trafficking in Sweden
• New legislation against trafficking in
human beings for sexual purposes
• Proposal for temporary residence
permits for victims of trafficking
•
Trafficking in Women
Additional copies of this fact sheet may
be ordered from the Ministry of Industry,
Employment and Communications,
Division for Gender Equality
Tel. +46 (0)8-405 10 00. Art. No.
N2002-028.
It is also available on the Swedish
Government website (click on “Read
More”): http://naring.regeringen.se/
fragor/jamstalldhet/
Further information:
Information about the Swedish
campaign:
http://www.naring.regeringen.se/fragor/
jamstalldhet/kvinnohandel/
Information about the Nordic-Baltic
campaign:
http://www.nordicbalticcampaign.org
Contacts:
Your questions can be addressed to:
Questions about the factual content of
this fact sheet should be referred to:
Gunilla Ekberg, Special Advisor,
Tel. +46 08-405 53 86
In Sweden, prostitution is regarded as an aspect of male violence
against women and children. It is officially acknowledged as a form of
exploitation of women and children and constitutes a significant
social problem, which is harmful not only to the individual
prostituted woman or child, but also to society at large.
The Swedish Government has long given priority to combating
prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes. This objective
is central to Sweden’s goal of achieving equality between women and
men, at the national level as well as internationally. However, gender
equality will remain unattainable so long as men buy, sell and exploit
women and children by prostituting them.
Prostitution is a form of male violence against women
In the legislation on gross violation of a woman’s integrity
(
Parliament) defined prostitution as a form of male violence against
women and children. Since January 1, 1999, purchasing – or
attempting to purchase – sexual services has constituted a criminal
offence punishable by fines or up to six months imprisonment. The
women and children who are victims of prostitution and trafficking do
not risk any legal repercussions. Prostituted persons are considered as
the weaker party, exploited by both the procurers and the buyers. It is
important to motivate persons in prostitution to attempt to exit
without risking punishment. By adopting these measures Sweden has
given notice to the world that it regards prostitution as a serious form
of oppression of women, and that efforts must be made to combat it.
Under the
(1998:408)
for payment shall be sentenced – unless the act is punishable under the
Swedish
imprisonment for a maximum period of six months. The attempted
purchase of sexual services is punishable under Chapter 23 of the
Code
The offence comprises all forms of sexual services, whether they are
purchased on the street, in brothels, in so-called massage parlours,
from escort services or in other similar circumstances.
Since the Act came into force, there has been a dramatic drop in the
number of women in street prostitution, according to information
provided by the police and social services. Criminalization has also
meant that the number of men who buy sexual services has fallen
along with the recruitment of women into prostitution.
Public support for the legislation is widespread and growing.
Opinion polls conducted by the opinion and social research
consultancy, Sifo, in June 1999, and again two years later, showed a
significant rise – from 76 to 81 per cent – in the number of people in
favour of the Act. The proportion of respondents who thought the Act
should be repealed shrank from 15 to 14 per cent, while the
percentage of ‘don’t knows’ fell by almost half. A
third survey carried out in October 2002 confirmed
that support for the
Sexual Services
Swedes in favour.
Procuring
According to Chapter 6, s. 8 of the Swedish
anyone who promotes or encourages or improperly
exploits for commercial purposes causal sexual relations
entered into by another person in exchange for payment
is guilty of a criminal offence and shall be sentenced for
procuring to imprisonment for at most four years. If the
crime is aggravated, imprisonment for at least two and
at the most six years shall be imposed (gross procuring,
chapter 6, s. 9). Attempts to commit procuring or gross
procuring, as well as preparation for and conspiracy to
commit gross procuring, together with failure to reveal
such crime, are also criminalized.
Promotion can take various forms: examples include
operating a brothel, letting premises for purposes of
prostitution or helping a buyer find prostituted
persons.
Before July 1, 2002, cases of trafficking in human
beings for sexual purposes were prosecuted under the
procuring provisions, or, depending on the individual
case, under the provisions on kidnapping, unlawful
deprivation of liberty, placing a person in a distressful
situation, coercion, or sexual exploitation.
Why does prostitution exist?
Like other forms of violence committed by men
against women, prostitution is a gender-specific
phenomenon; the overwhelming majority of victims
are women and girls, while the perpetrators are
invariably men.
Prostitution and trafficking in women assume a
demand among men for women and children, mainly
girls. If men did not regard it as their self-evident
right to purchase and sexually exploit women and
children, prostitution and trafficking would not exist.
Human traffickers and pimps profit from women’s and
girl’s economic, social, political and legal
subordination. The fact that women who suffer
additional oppression – such as racism – are strongly
over-represented in the global prostitution industry is
clear evidence of this. In countries where progress has
been made in improving the status of women and the
conditions under which they live – societies in which
they are guaranteed certain basic political rights,
access to jobs and education and an acceptable living
standard – women and girls have more alternatives
and are therefore far less vulnerable.
Poverty, inadequate schooling, homelessness, drug
dependency and sex and racial discrimination are
constantly recurring themes in the personal histories
of women and girls who are, or have been, prostituted.
Moreover, international studies show that between 65
and 90 per cent of prostituted women were sexually
abused by male relatives or acquaintances as girls.
Many children, mainly girls, who are sexually
exploited, are sold into prostitution at an early age by
the men who abuse them. According to recent
international studies, the median age for the entrance
of girls into prostitution is 14 years of age.
Who is the buyer?
Because it is traditionally assumed that men who buy
and exploit prostituted women and girls act out of a
‘natural’ male sexual need, their underlying motives
have seldom been studied or even questioned. Instead,
attention has been focused on the prostituted women
and girls, despite the fact that prostitution is sustained
entirely by men’s sexual desires and behaviour.
So who are these men who see it as their right to
buy women and children and subject them to
humiliating and painful sexual assaults and violations?
According to the most recent studies, conducted by
the National Institute of Public Health
(
Sweden purchases sexual services at least once in his
life. These individuals represent a cross-section of
Swedish men of all ages and from all social classes.
Most are married or co-habiting and have children.
The image of the typical buyer as a lonely deviant is
not borne out by the facts. He is much more likely to
be a well-dressed, well-paid middle-class father on a
business trip. Buyers have money, stability, education
and power; in marked contrast to the women and
children they buy.
A study conducted in Stockholm during 2002, found
that of boys aged 16 to 25, almost 10 per cent had at
some time “paid for a sexual service.”- Buyers are
thus just as likely to be teen-age boys who gain access
to prostituted women while sitting at their computers
in their bedrooms at home.
The effects of prostitution
Popular contemporary cinema, advertisements, fashion,
music, literature and the media generally portray
women and girls as objects, while presenting a false
picture of prostitution. The extreme violence
regularly inflicted on women and girls by buyers,
pimps and human traffickers is thus trivialized. In any
other context, such acts would be categorized as
sexual abuse and rape. As well as extreme humiliation
and degradation, women and children, mainly girls, in
prostitution regularly suffer threats, abuse, rape,
assault and battery, torture, unwanted pregnancies,
infertility, injuries and permanent damage to the
skeleton, genital area and anus.
Another constant hazard is the risk of infection
from pimps and buyers carrying sexually transmitted
diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Not only do all these
acts cause severe harm to women and girls, they are
also gross violations of their integrity, dignity – and
rights – as human beings.
The fact that these acts are committed in exchange
for payment does not in any way diminish or mitigate
the immense physical and mental damage inflicted on
their bodies and minds. The psychological and
emotional effects of their experiences can scar
prostituted women and girls for life.
International studies show that prostituted women
suffer from the same emotional traumas as war
veterans and victims of torture. They may experience
the same symptoms – flashbacks, deep anxiety,
depression, insomnia and stress. Suicide and suicide
attempts are common. A Canadian study showed that
prostituted women are 40 times more likely to be
murdered than the female population as a whole. It is
no exaggeration to say that prostitution is lethal to
women.
Trafficking in women and children
International trafficking in women and children is a
growing, worldwide problem. The trade has various
aims. Apart from prostitution or other forms of sexual
exploitation, the victims of traffickers – according to
the
in Persons, especially Women and Children
supplementing the United Nations Convention Against
Transnational Organized Crime
“forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar
to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
Whatever the purpose, human trafficking always
involves the transporting by a person or persons of
other people across continents, countries, regions or
cities with the aim of exploiting them or profiting
from them or their labour.
The UN estimates that as many as 4 million women
and children fall victims to traffickers every year,
most of whom are exploited for sexual purposes.
According to the International Organization of
Migration, at least 500,000 women are sold annually
to local prostitution markets in Europe. The exact
number is difficult to determine as criminal networks
often conduct and are responsible for the trafficking in
human beings, but international researchers speak of
large numbers of unrecorded cases and dramatic
increases in recent years.
The individuals, groups and networks that traffic in
human beings – for whatever purpose – do so in order
to exploit their victims. Traffickers are often highly
organised, ruthless entrepreneurs who earn huge
profits from the exploitation of women and children
for sexual purposes. The vast turnover generated by
the global prostitution industry goes directly into the
pockets of pimps, human traffickers and brothel
owners and may indirectly benefit e.g. tour operators,
airlines, hotels, restaurants, taxi drivers and
advertisers.
International trafficking in human beings could not
flourish but for the existence of local prostitution
markets where men are willing and able to buy and
sell women and children for sexual exploitation.
Traffickers ship women and children from countries in
the south to countries in the north and from the east
to the west – wherever the demand is greatest.
Trafficking in Sweden
According to the National Criminal Investigation
Department, between 200 and 500 women – victims
of trafficking – arrive in Sweden every year. Most of
them come from the Baltic countries, Eastern Europe
or the former Soviet Union. Traffickers often recruit
women with bogus offers of work as waitresses, au
pair girls or dancers. When the women or girls arrive
at the country of destination, the pimps often take
their passports and papers. They are often sexually
abused and raped by the traffickers as a way of
‘initiation’ and then prostituted in brothels and sex
clubs where they are isolated from the rest of the
community. They are guarded by the pimps who often
pocket most of their earnings and whose control over
them – stranded as they are in a strange country,
unable to speak the language and without a permit to
stay – is virtually absolute. Traffickers and pimps also
deliver women to Swedish border towns, villages and
camping sites, where local men buy and sexually
exploit them before they are sent back to their
countries of origin.
Legislation against human trafficking for sexual
purposes
By signing the United Nations
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons
Women and Children
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime
traffickers of human beings to justice and to take
steps to combat organised crime.
On July 1, 2002, legislation that imposed criminal
liability for the
purposes
responsibility for the crime of trafficking in human
beings for sexual purposes for anyone who:
1) by the use of unlawful coercion, deception or of
any other similar improper means, induces another to
go to or to be transported abroad for the purpose of
sexual offences, prostitution or other forms of
exploitation for sexual purposes,
2) for such a purpose and by the use of such improper
means as mentioned transports, harbours or receives
someone who has arrived to a country under such
conditions, and
3) commits any such act against a victim who has not
attained 18 years of age, even if no improper means
have been used.
The penal provision also applies to someone who, in
such circumstances, receives, transports or gives
shelter to such a person. Attempt, preparation and
conspiracy to traffic in human beings for sexual
purposes, or failure to report such a crime, is also
punishable. The area of application covers all crossborder
trafficking for sexual exploitation in which the
perpetrator exploits the vulnerability of another
person.
Under this legislation a trafficker can be sentenced to
a minimum of two years and, at the most, ten years in
prison, or in less serious cases, to a maximum of four
years in prison.
Printed by XBS Grafisk service, Stockholm, July 2003.This Fact Sheet has been produced by the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communication. Article no. N3036.
The new provision is a first step towards extending
penal legislation covering all forms of trafficking in
persons, including trafficking within national borders
and trafficking for other forms of exploitation. During
2003, the Swedish Government will introduce further
legislation, which will criminalize all forms of
trafficking in persons, including trafficking within
national borders and trafficking for other forms of
exploitation, such as forced labour and slavery.
Proposal for temporary residence permits for victims
of trafficking
The Government has appointed a parliamentary
committee, the
Relatives
the provisions on human smuggling in the
In its final report (SOU 2001:69), the Committee
proposed stiffer penalties for a range of offences
including human smuggling, illegal residence or
abetting illegal residence in Sweden for commercial
gain in a effort to bring the Act into line with
corresponding legal instruments in the European
Union.
The Committee also proposed the introduction of
additional grounds for granting short-term residence
permits to people prepared to serve as witnesses in
cases involving human trafficking or smuggling. This
would enable them to remain in Sweden legally as
long as their presence was needed in connection with
preliminary investigations or trials of suspected
offenders. In some cases, circumstances could also
justify granting permanent residence under the terms
of the
humanitarian grounds. Furthermore, the Committee
proposed that victims granted a residence permit of
limited duration should be entitled to the same health
care and medical attention as that enjoyed by
foreigners seeking asylum. According to the current
regulations, any other support is the responsibility of
the municipality in which the foreigner resides.
During 2003, the Swedish Government is expected
to present a Bill to the Parliament, with proposals for
different legal and social measures to protect and
assist victims of trafficking in women.
Nordic-Baltic campaign against trafficking in women
In 2002, no less than eight campaigns against
trafficking in women were conducted in the Nordic
and Baltic countries. These campaigns were the
outcome of an initiative taken by the Swedish
Minister for Gender Equality Affairs, Margareta
Winberg, during the conference,
Democracy,
countries’ Ministers for Gender Equality Affairs
resolved to launch a joint campaign in 2002 as a
contribution to international efforts to stop
trafficking in human beings. Later in the same year,
the countries’ Justice Ministers joined the Campaign.
The Campaign was financed and carried out under the
auspices of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The Nordic-Baltic campaign opened with a joint
seminar in Tallinn on May 29-31, 2002. The event was
attended by delegates from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. A
second seminar, primarily concerned with the issue of
protection and support for victims of trafficking in
women, was held in Vilnius on October 20-22, 2002.
The final joint seminar of the Campaign was held in
Riga, Latvia, on November 27-28, 2002. This seminar
focused on the continuing efforts of the Nordic and
Baltic countries to eliminate trafficking in women and
children in the region.
At an informal ministerial meeting in Stockholm in
April, 2003, the Nordic and Baltic Ministers for
Gender Equality, Justice and Interior, agreed on a
number of concrete measures for the continuing longterm
cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic
countries to combat trafficking in women and
children.
Campaign against prostitution and trafficking in
women in Sweden
The
increase the awareness and knowledge about prostitution
and the global trafficking in human beings through
information to, and education and training of government
and other public authorities, non-governmental
organizations, the media and the public.
The national campaign focused on different measures
directed towards buyers and potential buyers of
prostituted women and children, mostly girls, in Sweden,
as well as towards those men who travel to other
countries for the specific purpose of buying and
exploiting prostituted women and children. The
campaign also highlighted, with the long-term objective
to ameliorate, the circumstances and conditions that
those women and children who are, or who have been,
victims of prostitution and trafficking live under.
The underlying principles expressed in the
Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
the law that prohibits the purchase of sexual services
and the new offence on trafficking in human beings for
sexual purposes formed the basis and was used as a
point of departure for the Swedish campaign. The
work continues during 2003-2004.